Destiny Stone Gate is arguably the most successful of the 5pb. "Delusional Science Fantasy adv series" in collaboration with Nitro+. From the first generation of "Gate of the Stone of Destiny" in 2009 to the present, it has successively launched works such as "The Gate of the Stone of Destiny, the Lover of the Wings of The Gate of the Stone of Destiny", "The Tree Diagram of the Gate of the Gate of the Stone of Destiny", "The Gate of the Stone of Destiny 0" and so on. Spanning several models, with excellent story, suspense and excellent character development, it has conquered players from all platforms, giving them the opportunity to feel the charm of the game. The animated version, launched in 2011, further broadened the game's audience. But 5pb. did not stop the expansion of this IP, so in 2017, 5pb. announced the launch of the latest work in the "Gate of destiny stone" series - "Destiny Stone Gate Elite", so the quality of this work, this article will evaluate it.
Destiny Stone Gate Elite | Steins; gate elite
Developer: 5pb. mages
Publisher: Spike chunsoft
Release Date: September 20, 2018 (Japanese version), February 19, 2019 (English version), March 29, 2019 (Chinese version)
Platform: ps4/psv/switch (Japanese version), ps4/switch/pc (English version), switch/pc (Chinese version)
Attributes: Love Adventure, Suspense, Science Fiction
*This article is based on Steam (Chinese version).
preface
Since this game is based on the original plot of "Gate of Destiny Stone" and adopts a remake of the animation style, this article will involve some comparisons between this game and the original generation of "Gate of Destiny Stone", and for the sake of players who have not yet started, this article tries not to involve the content of the plot.
Changes in painting style
During the promotional period, the game said that it was based on the original plot and added various new elements and new gameplay, and before coming into contact with this game, the author was always curious about what the so-called new gameplay would be like. After actually playing the game, I feel that the new way of playing should refer to the new style of painting. The first moment you enter the game, you will be greeted by changes and adjustments in the UI style, which become more flat. In addition, there is a remastered opening animation, 5pb. has been making new op animations and theme songs for the ported version of the game of the same name, and even adding some more convenient functions to enhance the player's gaming experience.
▲ The opening cg of "Destiny Stone Gate Elite" is very sophisticated and full of deep meaning.
The official invited white fox studios that produced the animated version of "Destiny Stone Gate" to assist in the development of this game, and a large number of pictures were taken from the animated version, and the dynamic background made the author more focused. However, because the development team split the complete animation into fragments, if you use the autoplay mode to play, it looks at least more coherent, and the senses will be much better. In addition, some scenes only have a close-up of a character, and only the mouth is moving, and the richness of the picture is not as good as the original. If you look closely during the game, you will find that the production team uses the same picture material in different scenes, and sometimes the lines and the corresponding screen will feel uncoordinated, perhaps because the animation version has been re-dubbed and the game uses the relationship between the animation version of the screen and the original game voice, resulting in some inconsistencies in the performance of the game and the animation version in the same scene.
Below are two sets of examples of the comparison between the original version and the elite version, which style is more suitable for you, this is a matter of opinion.
▲ The original main menu
▲ Elite edition main menu
▲Original painting style
▲ Elite printmaking style
Gameplay
The basic gameplay of Destiny Stone Gate Elite is the same as the original version. As a text adventure game, this game also has automatic playback, skip, forced skip, instant save and read and other functions, unlike the conventional text adventure game uses the options in the dialogue to determine the branch of the plot development route, in this game by receiving sms articles for different key replies to play a similar role. However, unlike the original version, the player of this game does not need to manually operate the action of taking out the mobile phone, and when it reaches the game options, the mobile phone interface will automatically pop up, which becomes more simple, but it still restricts some of the operational freedom and leads to a reduced sense of substitution. If there is any dissatisfaction, the mobile phone ringtone and wallpaper have also removed the custom function, although these small additions are harmless to take away, but this is an element that exists in many works in the series, and it is still a pity after removing it. The part that encounters the game options during autoplay automatically stops to remind the player that a choice needs to be made here, avoiding the embarrassment of having to re-read the file due to the player's hand speed. By default, an autoarchive is left at each option, so it can be easily remedied even if you accidentally select the wrong one.
For players who have played the original version, one of the highlights of this game is the other routes that were not unimported in the 24 episodes of the 2011 anime version, and the development team has made a certain degree of deletion to the script of the original game, making many of the bridges in the game more streamlined. The plot of "Gate of the Stone of Destiny" itself belongs to the slow-heat type, and the impetuous player may not be able to play it, and these streamlinings can allow new pit players to enter the state faster and survive the early stage of the game. There are 11 chapters in the game, starting from the fifth chapter, because the player's choice is different, they will enter the route of different characters, and the options at this time have changed from daily greetings to difficult choices, and the decision in a moment changes the fate of others. When the player successfully completes the ending of a certain character route, the extra content will be unlocked. In this option you can view all the tips, background music, animations, ending lists, etc. that you have obtained so far. However, the lack of cg options in extra has to be said to be a pity. The full collection of cg has always been a favorite project of most galgame players, and after this direct removal, on the one hand, players do not need to spend more time to play more than one week in order to collect an illustration, even if the whole skipped takes a little time. On the other hand, players who have long been accustomed to this set will feel that there is something less. The author recommends that players try to play all the character endings, each with their own charm, and the real ending on top of this is more exciting, and also allows players to understand the meaning of the title.
This game supports three operation modes of gamepad, keyboard and mouse, and can be switched arbitrarily in the game. However, the key prompts on the UI will not be switched when using the handle, and the operation interface of the handle will be better if the function of the corresponding button can be displayed in more detail on the diagram. In addition, the game on the keyboard corresponding to cancel the key for the backspace key, when the player uses the Chinese input method to play this game, after pressing the shortcut key on the keyboard to trigger a function, the system input method box will pop up, and if the player subconsciously presses the backspace key to cancel the text just typed, and will accidentally cancel an operation in the game. It is recommended that conditional players use the gamepad to play this game.
The translation quality of this work is very good, including the text on the whiteboard and mobile phone screen in the background picture, and the speech on the in-game network forum uses a lot of network language in recent years, although there are some typos plus some memes that have not been translated, but on the whole, it will not affect the player's understanding of the storyline.
A9vg experience summary
"Destiny Stone Gate Elite" is a suitable entry for new players, the characters have distinct personalities, the plot is gripping, the idea of using the animation style to remake the original is very interesting but can be done better, after updating the official Chinese subtitles, the language is not the threshold for players to try this game. However, due to the fact that there are some deletions in the content of this work compared to the original version, perhaps the title of this work should be called "Destiny Stone Gate Lite" instead of "Destiny Stone Gate Elite" more accurately.
a9vg for Destiny Stone Gate Elite rating: 8/10, the full rating is as follows: